A MAN who attempted to abduct a nine-year-old boy in Dorchester has been labelled a ‘high risk to children’ as he was jailed for four years.

Sebastian O’Connor, aged 24, was imprisoned over an incident on September 24 last year when he approached the youngster and his friend on their way to school in the town.

The judge in the case said he believed O’Connor’s actions were a ‘dry run’ for something more serious.

Jurors at his trial at Dorchester Crown Court in March heard how O’Connor, of Binghams Road, Crossways, approached the boys as they were riding to school together on their scooters.

He walked into the middle of the road with the victim and told him he was his mother’s brother-in-law and that he would picking the youngster up after school.

That prompted the boy to phone his mother on his mobile phone and she said O’Connor could not be her brother-in-law and that he wasn’t to meet him at the end of the school day.

O’Connor, who told jurors he had not seen either of the two boys before, left the scene shortly afterwards.

The jury also heard that O’Connor had a previous conviction for sexual assault over an incident in Bovington last year, which related to O’Connor stroking a young boy’s leg. He was given a community order for that offence in November last year.

At his sentence hearing for the attempted child abduction, prosecutor David Richards confirmed that O’Connor had been on bail in relation to the Bovington offence when he approached the boys on September 24.

O’Connor’s probation officer Melanie Pursglove, who had been overseeing his community order for the sexual assault in June last year, also addressed the court.

She said that, although the defendant was attending for appointments, his compliance had been ‘superficial’.

She added: “At the moment he has no understanding or insight into his behaviour.”

Tim Shorter, mitigating, said: “It gives him no sense of anything other than shame to find himself in this position for the second time in a year of facing a sentence for serious offending.

“He wants to get into a position where he is best placed to avoid the difficulties and the crimes that he has committed in the past.”

Judge Roger Jarvis said comments made by O’Connor in his police interview, when he made unprompted claims that he had no plans to rape or murder the boy in the abduction case, revealed a worrying insight into the defendant’s mindset.

He said: “It was, in my judgement, plainly pre-meditated. You had worked out what it was you were going to say to this young boy and fortunately you were thwarted by him being a sensible young boy and ringing his mother up.

“I believe this offence and the June offence you were convicted of were the dry runs for something really serious.”

Referring to O’Connor’s comments about rape and murder, the judge added: “I’m of the firm view that these are the sorts of fantasies that you were having about young boys.

“I judge you to be a high risk to children.”